(4)Zelda vs (4)Cloud Strife (Losers Bracket) 2018
Ulti's Analysis I feel like this match would have had a lot more impact had we not quite literally just watched Cloud beat Mario with the exact same trends and for the exact same reason. Cloud was in Smash, which gave him the boost he needed to stop embarrassing himself. It's really that simple. Here, you even get the same video I used last writeup because you might be a wiki reader reading these out of order or something. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wah7AGkkzl4 This match wasn't as exciting as Cloud's comeback on Mario, for two reasons. One, there is no history here. There was no hype, no insane loss from 2002 that Cloud was trying to make up for, no connection from people that grew up on contests and stayed on Board 8, nothing. In fact these two had never even been in a poll together before this match. The other reason is the early numbers being much smaller for Zelda than they were for Mario. Mario built up a 300 vote lead early and looked like he would do what he always does before Cloud pulled off one of the more surprising comebacks we'd ever seen. He reversed trends. That is not an easy thing to do. But when you repeat the exact same pattern one day later on a smaller scale, it doesn't mean as much. Cloud actually won the board vote here, which he never does, and then Zelda only built up a lead of 127 before she started struggling. Mario breezed past 300 before that happened, so when Zelda struggled much earlier we all knew what was coming. The only real point of contention here would be whether or not Cloud could win the morning/day vote over a Zelda character, which is simply a different beast than the Mario characters. It's like watching Aquaman fight all these amazing subterranean beasts with the awesome technology. It's great and all, but then he meets the fucking kraken. Turns out Cloud = Aquaman, Zelda = Mera, and Link = Thanos isn't all that crazy of a comparison. Zelda did her thing over the first few hours, and even got a lead inching toward 300 at one point, but Cloud erased it all overnight and had just proven he was capable of morning/day success against Nintendo with Smash's backing. So when Cloud won the morning vote and then beat the shit out of Zelda all day long until the poll ended, it wasn't a surprise. Which is a shame, because had the Mario match not just happened, this would have been a huge shocker. Just some bad luck for Zelda, I suppose. Switch this match with the Mario match in the bracket layout and we're telling a much different story here, but it is what it is. This also doesn't mean Zelda wasn't the star of the contest, either. She just ran out of gas after losing to Link, and I think a lot of people when faced with a choice of an all-Zelda final versus a Link/Cloud final, they picked the option less likely to be an SFF embarrassment. Can't blame them. Safer777's Analysis So Cloud edged Mario and here is facing Zelda. Zelda beat barely Mario too and did well on Link so that means that these 2 were equal. So for around 12 hours Zelda was winning and after that Cloud went ahead and he won easily. I once again didn't expected that. These 2 both faced Link and they both got owned so it didn't really matter who would face him again. Plus Zelda has a bandwagon and rallies and such so I thought she would win. But no. Cloud did it again. So once again he reached the final match. I still don't believe that Cloud managed to beat both Mario and Zelda to reach the final match. But this match prooves that Zelda is now top tier and can beat half of the NN no problem. Man if another contest comes and we have another Zelda game she can be the 2nd strongest character in the bracket for sure. But I have to say I gotta hand it to Cloud. Defied expectations and reached another final too! Come on please, FF 7 remake! Or KH 3 boost! If the FF 7 cast is there. Or something! Also I don't believe that Cloud is still the Number 2 guy even though the matches say otherwise. I believe that Samus beats him for sure. Also Smash makes everyone hyper strong. It is scary to see how much power this game gives! Some said that people voted for Cloud because they didn't wanted to see another Link VS Zelda Final match. Eh I am not sure. The trends here were exactly like Cloud VS Mario so there you go. So this was the final match for Zelda in the contest too. She was the Star of the contest no doubt for me and for most people. Let us see next time how she does. Category:2018 Contest Matches